1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device comprising plural elongated illuminators.
There is a limit to enlarging a screen of a display having a single structure. A very large display of self-luminous type that is used in a stadium or an event place is made of plural light sources such as cathode-ray tubes or light emitting diodes (LEDs) arranged in a matrix. Normally, the total number of the light sources is several hundreds of thousands or more, and a lot of labors and costs are required for assembling the display. Therefore, it is asked to realize a bright screen having a dimension of several meters easily.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A very large display utilizing a light emission principle of a plasma display panel (PDP) has been suggested by the present applicant as a xe2x80x9clarge gas discharge display panel,xe2x80x9d which is disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 61-103187.
The suggested display has a combination structure of plural elongated illuminators arranged in one direction. Each of the illuminators corresponds to a PDP having a single row or column. This display has following advantages over other kinds of displays.
(1) The illuminators are arranged in one direction, so the number of man-hours for assembling them can be smaller than the case where they are arranged in two directions (row and column directions).
(2) The cells of a row are formed as a unit, so a lighter and less expensive display can be realized than the case where an independent light source is arranged for each cell.
(3) The illuminator has a higher luminance than a light emitting diode.
In addition, though the dimension (the numbers of rows and columns) of a PDP having a structure is determined by the size of a glass substrate, the suggested display having the combination structure can realize any rows (or columns) of display by increasing or decreasing the number of arranged illuminators. Though the number of rows (or columns) depends on a length of a light emission module, it is much easier elongating the illuminator than enlarging a PDP. It is not realistic to manufacture a glass substrate having a very large area from the viewpoint of a plant and a conveyance. Namely, when trying to manufacture a large display by a single structure, a glass plate that is larger than a screen size should be handled, and a size larger than 100 inches is not realistic. The upper limit of the dimension of a display (such as a pixel size or a screen size) that can be produced depends on manufacturing facilities. In order to produce a large display having a larger dimension than the manufacturing facilities, new manufacturing facilities have to be constructed. In contrast, if the production is performed by a unit of line (row), an engineering change for easy assembling and for responding to the dimension of the display can be performed without a large change of the manufacturing facilities. Therefore, various sizes of displays can be realized at a low cost.
Other conventional examples of such arrangement of elongated illuminators are explained in Japanese unexamined patent publications No. 11-3649 and No. 11-162358. The former discloses a display device having a structure in which fibers with embedded electrodes are arranged on the front side of the illuminators arranged in the horizontal direction. The latter discloses a display device in which illuminating tubes are arranged on a substrate with column electrodes and row electrodes are formed on the front side of the illuminating tubes.
In the conventional above-mentioned display device disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent publication No. 61-103187, electrodes of many illuminators should be connected so as to form an electrode matrix after arranging the illuminators, and the wire connection is a burdensome job. In the conventional display device disclosed in Japanese unexamined patent publications No. 11-3649 or No. 11-1623358, the electrodes extending in one direction of the electrode matrix are arranged in the front side of the illuminator, so a consideration of decreasing a light shield by using a transparent material is required. In addition, when forming a row electrode over the illuminators after arranging them, it is difficult to secure an accuracy of the position of a paste print for a large screen if a thick-film process is used. In contrast, if a thin-film process is used, a unit of production becomes not a line but a surface, so the above-mentioned advantage of the production facilities fades out.
The object of the present invention is to provide a display device made of a group of elongated illuminators, which enable an electrode matrix to be formed easily.
FIGS. 1A-1C are diagrams showing a basic concept of the present invention.
The display device 10 of the present invention has illuminators 40 arranged on a substrate 20, and electrode supporters 50 are arranged along each of the illuminators 40. In order to let plural portions (cells) of the illuminator 40 in the longitudinal direction emit light selectively in any desired combination, the electrode supporter 50 is provided with electrodes X, Y. The substrate 20 is provided with wiring conductive patterns 30x, 30y for supplying electricity to the electrodes X, Y. The electrodes X, Y and the wiring conductive patterns 30x, 30y are connected electrically by assembling the substrate 20 and the electrode supporter 50, so that an electrode matrix is formed that enables any image display.